What Does J.K. Rowling Do When She Plays “The Sims”?
The queen of tiny tidbits has struck again! This time, she didn’t share a cryptic clue regarding the next Fantastic Beasts film, but she gave us an insight into how she keeps her creative genius flowing. You guessed it: by playing The Sims!
Today was supposed to be the day when I let go of my glitchy old laptop with the broken keys and transferred everything to a new one but 💔 pic.twitter.com/KM7P4ZVVjR
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) August 16, 2017
The photo of her laptop screen reminded us that even JKR is addicted to the role-playing game. Craving any insight into how her mind works, we at MuggleNet burst into action creating our own theories of how she may use The Sims in relation to our favorite wizarding world. Here are the top ones from our chat!
Where did the Weasley legacy begin?
“I still say that she’s done a [L]egacy [C]hallenge with the Weasleys,” one of us theorized. A Legacy Challenge requires the player to play one family through 10 generations. One adult Sim starts off alone in a small lot with a few necessities, and from there the family is grown. Has JKR taken on this classic challenge using the Weasleys as her Legacy family? Where would she start in the Weasley timeline – the past, present, or future? An added challenge would be maintaining red hair throughout all 10 generations!
Is this how Hermione and Ron got together?!
We wondered, “Maybe she sees if a relationship between her characters will work out… [by] testing it out on Sims first?” Imagine JKR happily playing a game with the golden trio as Sims: As she goes to click the joke interaction between Hermione and Ron, she is distracted by a noise one of her children makes and looks away. As she looks back at her screen, she sees in horror that she clicked the flirt option… Before she knows it, Hermione and Ron are craving more romantic interactions! Since it doesn’t end in a messy divorce – or worse, expulsion – she comes around to the idea that these two characters are meant to be!
Who needs magic to build a castle when you’ve got mad Simoleans?
We know JKR pays close attention to detail, so how incredible must her Sims houses be?! Those houses must be something out of a dream. Who bets she has a mini-Hogwarts, mini-Burrow, or even a Gryffindor common room inside her lucky Sims’ homes? Like any good Sims player, she probably loads her characters up on cash by spamming “motherlode” (“rosebud” in the old days) into the cheat bar, giving them plenty of Simoleans to feed their castle building whims.
The perfect chance for revenge…
We’ve all walked upon some morally gray ground while Simming. Which characters would JKR lock in a small room with a burning stove? Dolores Umbridge? Vernon Dursley? Aunt Marge? We can think of a few nasty souls that might be due for a swim in a ladder-less pool…
Could anonymous Jo have struck again?
We all know JKR loves to sneak into forums and leave comments, so it isn’t really that much of a stretch to picture her online-gaming with the Sims! If you’re a Sims fan, you will know you can build a house and then upload it to the Sims database for other like-minded Simmers to download and enjoy. Maybe we’ve all been playing Sims with our favorite author without knowing it! She might even download content that other players upload, like this amazing Hogwarts replica created by Simmer manonh06 (used as fourfeatured image for this article).
Headcanon Time!
Still upset about Tonks and Lupin’s deaths? Fear not; the Harry Potter afterlife could exist in the Sims. JKR often spoke about how difficult she found killing off certain characters. One of the ways she could have dealt with it is through creating a Sims parallel universe for the deceased characters to live on!
The Magic of Expansion Packs
Don’t forget that Sims has multiple magical extension packs. Between Supernatural and Makin’ Magic, JKR would have no trouble recreating her magical world in Sims form.
Don’t forget! Tickets to MuggleNet Live! 2017: Nineteen Years Later are still available for purchase, and we would LOVE to meet you in Orlando for an amazing Potter fandom experience! Check out our website for details and then get your ticket to have a private, magical evening with MuggleNet and the awesome talent from the Potter films!
